Category: Edgy

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder, along comes the new Pepsi logo. As a scientist, I’m trained to think in terms of symmetry. The original Pepsi logo had a Yin and Yang thing going on. When I saw the new logo, I couldn’t help but think it looked incredibly familiar. Kind of like the Obama logo during the 2008 election. I decided to put the two together, rotate the O-logo and WOW!

Question: Is this an uncanny resemblance or a blatant attempt by Pepsi to play on Zero’s logo?

I just returned from an international trip and decided to check the news to see, hear, or read the progress to stop the BP Gulf Spill from poisoning the waters, killing plankton, algae and ultimately destroying portions of the food chain. But sadly, producers and controllers of networks and editors of our fifth estate have decided the spill is old news. 70+ days AFTER the spill began, no progress has been made to contain the harm. 70+ days AFTER we have no images, no photos, no live feed of the 150+ square miles of spill now greater than the size of the state of Missouri! News crews are prevented by our Coast Guard (a division of Homeland Security) from flying over and reporting on the clean-up! I have just one question.

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE!

There was more in depth coverage of Michael Jackson’s passing and funeral than there is this catastrophe. Go ahead and continue to sit on your ass, eating hot dogs, taking Prozac and watching tv, there’s nothing going on.

Well, the grab for power never seems to cease. If there is any issue that gives evidence to the problems we face by an over-reaching federal government, look no further than ZeroCare. It remains evident that we are ensnared by a career cast of politicians and regulators who by and large have never worked for a living in the private sector, or they rotate in-and-out of the revolving door with Wall Street / K-Street, and they don’t really have a sense of what ‘Joe Six-Pack’ really has to endure. The solutions they offer seem like unsolicited marriage advice from someone who’s single!

What we need right now is common sense that can only be provided by new blood in high offices. The present cast of clowns who regulate or govern us are a very closed society. And they appear deaf to the wishes of the people. This is a disturbing trend. Their offices hang up on constituents that call, they place their phones on forward, or simply don’t answer the line.

Why have our officials systematically shut down communication with the people? Could it be because they could be wrong about what the American people want? It’s perplexing considering that this is perhaps the greatest era of communication. We live in a time where people can communicate across any border, around the globe, at any time of day, in many different ways (see graphic). Despite such access, they choose to cloister themselves. If they do decide to communicate, they choose to talk AT us through the TV or on radio. Have you ever tried to actually contact your representatives in Washington? It’s a joke. If that isn’t evidence of a ruling-class mentality, I don’t know what is.

I find their behavior condescending and as a taxpaying, law-abiding, citizen, I’m deeply concerned. I find this a poor time to bury the head in the hole particularly in light of the fact that an “Economic Shitstorm” (caused by corrupt banksters, mortgage lenders, and dead-beat borrowers) has engulfed our country. People who did the right thing are losing their jobs, their companies are failing, and they are losing their homes because criminals placed bets they couldn’t cover and Congress felt compelled to rape the taxpayer to backstop their buddies. Guess what happens when the rule of law no longer applies equally to all.

Well, if you told me you were drowning,
I would not lend a hand,
I’ve seen your face before, my friend,
but I don’t know if you know who I am.

Well I was there and I saw what you did,
I saw it with my own two eyes.
So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you’ve been,
it’s all been a pack of lies.

And I can feel it comin’ in the air tonight, oh Lord,
I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life, oh Lord.
And I can feel it comin’ in the air tonight, oh Lord,
and I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life, oh Lord,
Oh Lord…

With our country reeling in the greatest economic downturn “since the Great Depression” it seemed appropriate to question the logic of nationalizing our health care system. What possible benefit could come from removing the stimuli (profit) for new product development, medical advancement in technology, and cap salaries for some of the best and brightest in our society – nurses and doctors alike? Our hospitals and government have always provided a baseline of care for the poor, surely todays occupants in DC are no more generous than generations of Representatives and Senators to stink the halls of Congress? I thus conclude there must be something else behind the move to nationalize health care in the USA.

The health insurance industry thrives on a pooled bet that you’ll be healthier than you think you’ll be over the next year and you’ll pay more if your risk factors suggest you’ll win the bet. Indeed, much more money comes in than is paid out. But that’s the beauty of free market capitalism! If you have a good business model and it works and you profit, you win! Think about the industry…it brings in money, produces a piece of paper that tells the client they are covered (to certain extents and limitations) and pays out according to defined limitations. The industry is comprised of statisticians, salesmen, accountants, economists, and bureaucrats. The only capital equipment needed are computers, office buildings, and chairs! Just how much cash are we talking about anyways? I don’t have the exact figures, a Google(TM) search showed somewhere between $1.4Trillion and $3.2Trillion dollars spent in the US health care industry. Most of that is likely paid for by insurance in some fashion. That’s a lot of cash!

Now put on the shoes of the federal government. They are, for all intents and purposes, broke. They compulsively spend more than they bring in. They spend to buy votes and parlay favor with their friends and special interests. In the end, We The People have to foot the bill. They know that if they raise taxes, we’d tar and feather the lot. So what options are they left with? When a body is dying, it shuts off blood supply to non-essential limbs to preserve the core. The government views the health insurance industry as a non-essential limb, it needs the cash flow to remain current on debt obligations, and does not care about the constitutionality of its actions. When they have bled that industry dry, they will serve up another. The only thing that can stop their takings are force.

The signs of a government out of control are evident for all to see. Yet America was founded on a strong, bold, and clear definition of the proper form of government, one deriving its power from the citizens solely to protect the rights of all. Thomas Jefferson described the Declaration of Independence as “an appeal to the tribunal of the world,” and “intended to be an expression of the American mind, and to give to that expression the proper tone and spirit called for by the occasion.”

Continuing from the Declaration of Independence,

“Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.” Fifty-six signers put their lives on the line for a vision Americans celebrate every Fourth of July.

They were men unafraid to challenge injustices imposed upon the people, bold enough to declare the existence of 13 sovereign states, and courageous in stating clearly that people should be governed by the rule of law, not by the words and control of a man with dictatorial rule, unrestrained by law, unjust, a usurper of sovereignty — in short, a tyrant.

Yet, where is the spirit of our founders today? Where are the patriots? Where are men who truly love freedom and will fight even to the loss of their private wealth and lives? As the tentacles of government stretch into the daily fabric of our lives, as its reach becomes so intimate that public and private lose meaning, I ask you to consider deeply: What Do You Stand For?